Single-use, disposable diapers have become a major source of waste. It is known that the disposable diapers are good for approximately 6% of the waste volume of a city. When disposed in a landfill, this leads to the production of methane, strongly contributing to warming up of the atmosphere. When burned, there is merely little recovery of the energy spent for production of these diapers.
In the light hereof, new compostable diapers have been designed and marketed. These diapers have the advantage of being single use, such that there is no need of washing them. However, the diapers can be converted, at least partially into fertile material. One such compostable diaper is known from EP0525245A1. It is observed therein that a conventional disposable absorbent product consists of about 80% of compostable material, such as wood pulp fibers. In the composting process, the articles are shredded and commingled with organic waste prior to the composting per se. After composting is complete, the non-compostable particles are screened out. Since the amount of non-compostable particles was too high, EP0525245 disclosed a product with a liquid impervious backsheet comprising a compostable polymer. This backsheet thereto contained a flexible starch based film. The preferred topsheet contained staple-length propylene fibers with a length of at least about 15 mm. A more recent embodiment of such a biodegradable liquid impervious backsheet, comprising a laminate of films, is for instance known from WO2013/137817. Biodegradable and compostable liquid permeable top sheets are also known. Alternatively, use can be made of biodegradable, liquid impervious top sheets with one or more openings.
Still, improvements to compostable diapers are desired. Particularly, composting of diapers will only make sense on a large scale, if the composting process does not need a long duration in order to arrive at a compost that has any commercial value. Moreover, in the light thereof, any processing on the diapers such as shredding and combining them with other materials, tends to lower economic viability due to labour costs.